CNET First Look

HP TouchSmart IQ506

All-in-one PC system with a touch screen.

2:24 / June 25, 2008

Transcript

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>> Hi, I'm Rich Brown, Senior editor for CNET.com. Today, we're gonna take a look at the HP TouchSmart PC IQ506. This is a newly designed TouchSmart system from HP. It's an update from one that came out last year. And if you're familiar with the older model, you can see this is a much prettier looking design. It has touch screen functionality, so the idea is you're supposed to walk up to it and you control it with your finger. So the main sweep of applications that comes with the system is HP's TouchSmart interface. Here you got a bunch of custom apps, like with the original. Here are your photos, it's not a bad application, we wish we could find a way to make it fill up the whole screen, but unfortunately, it doesn't. There's the note function and with this you just bring up a note on the screen, you can write on it with your finger. What the system does not have is multitouch like the iPhone. Windows Vista is limited to only single finger input. Now this is the main application. They work pretty well. The functions are maybe a little bit limited, but it's not too bad. You go to the main window desktop, you can also use it to click icons, select, drag and drop. Comes with a mouse and keyboards, so of course you can use those standard inputs, as well. They keyboard is actually pretty nice. It's nice and thin, of course you got a webcam up here on top with mike inputs. There's also a new little function here with the light that comes out from the bottom, lights-up the keyboard if the room is dark. You also get a set of speakers down here along the front. So looking at the profile of the TouchSmart, you can see it's not really that thick. It's about you know, your standard thickness for an all-in-one system. You can see a slot-loading DVD drive here. There's also volume controls, as well as the USB input and a smart card input. We do wish this system had independent controls for the display itself where you can shut down the screen without shutting down the computer. Now the back lid system is pretty clean. You have one power input here, an adjustable foot and if you take this cover off, you can see the ports on the rear. You got USB, TV tuner input as well as various audio and other inputs. There is an Ethernet cable input and the system also has 802.11 and wireless and Bluetooth built-in to it. As far as all-in-one PCs go, the iMac is much faster and it's actually a better deal as long as you don't really care about the touch or the bigger screen. But no other system that we know of offers this touch capability and that combine with the interface design actually makes this a fairly useful system if you want something in the kitchen where you can bring up your media, with notes for your family, that kind of thing. It's also maybe a little expensive for that functionality. It cost about $1500 for this higher-end model. Still it does its job and it does it fairly well. So, I'm Rich Brown and this is the HP TouchSmart PC IQ506.

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